The Burg 12 is a curious combination of smartwatch and smartphone, and it doesn't succeed at being either.

The smartwatchis more popular than ever, yet no one I know actually wears one. That's likely because even the best smartwatches we've tested are far from indispensable, especially when most people are walking around with a smartphone in their pocket. Designer Hermen van den Burg wants to change that by doing away with the smartphone entirely—or, more accurately, by absorbing it. The $199 Burg 12 is not just a smartwatch: It also comes with a SIM card so you can make calls and send text messages right from your wrist. It's certainly an interesting concept, but unfortunately, the Burg 12 is neither a capable smartphone replacement, nor a good smartwatch.

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DesignConsidering the design background involved here, the Burg 12 looks a little boring. It has a familiar round shape, which I prefer to boxy designs like the Samsung Gear 2 pictured below, but I'm not crazy about the decision to go ovular. It gives the silver ring around the face of the watch the appearance of an egg. And although the silver has a nice, premium feel, it's also well over half an inch thick, which makes the watch extremely bulky; I couldn't even bend my wrist while wearing it. The black rubber strap is fine, and I like the traditional buckle closure, but you can't swap it out for another band.

There are two physical buttons on the left side of the watch. The top one is a combination Power/End button, while the one below it is an OK/Dial button. Sandwiched between those is a covered micro USB port. The watch comes with a micro USB cable, but no wall adapter, so you'll need to plug it into your computer to charge. The 450mAh battery is rated for up to three days of standby or up to three hours of talk time. Anecdotally, I found that it lasted for about two days of mixed use, though that didn't include quite as many calls as I'd normally make with a cell phone. You'll probably want to charge it every night, which is acceptable for a phone, but too much for a watch.

The back of the watch (the part that sits against your wrist) comes off to reveal microSD and SIM card slots. The watch comes with a tiny 512MB card (which can be expanded up to 16GB) as well as a SIM card with $25 of prepaid talk and text.

The Burg 12 has a 1.54-inch square TFT touch screen with 240-by-240-pixel resolution. That works out to 220 pixels per inch. Because the square display is housed in an oval setting, the corners of the screen are slightly cut off. You don't miss anything, but it looks strange and it means that at least a quarter of the watch face is bezel, which is kind of annoying. And while the display itself looks fairly sharp, colors are washed out across the board. Viewing angles are poor, and what appears to be a cheap coating on top of the display (or perhaps even the display panel itself) is dimpled in places, like a piece of plastic that has been stretched too tight. The watch is supposedly scratch and splash resistant, but I managed to get a fairly large gash on the display within just a few days of casual use.

Perhaps my biggest problem with the Burg 12 is also its smallest feature: a stylus. A tiny, 1.8-inch collapsible stylus is stored in a compartment right beneath the buckle closure (it's the little silver dot at the bottom right pictured below). It took me a while to find, and once I did, I was immediately afraid I'd lose it. Aside from its diminutive length, the stylus is only slightly thicker than a paper clip. It's way too small to comfortably use, and yet it is essential; without it, it's virtually impossible to accurately type on the touch screen, especially for actions like sending a text message. I have no doubt that I'll lose it at some point, at which time the watch will essentially become unusable. That's a big problem.

Call QualityThe Burg 12 is surprisingly decent for voice calls. But you'll either need to make those calls over the speakerphone, which is far too low in volume, or using the included micro USB headphones; there's no option to hold the watch up to your ear and talk on it like a normal phone, which I guess would look a little crazy. Since the speakerphone is out unless you're in an extremely quiet area, I made most of my calls using the headphones. Voices sound clear and full on incoming calls, though extremely digitized. There's also a good amount of audible background hiss whenever the headphones are plugged in, whether making a call or not. On the other end, calls are also clear and easy to hear, but volume comes through a bit low.

Depending on where you buy it, the watch comes with $25 of credit on a good2GO SIM, an MVNO that appears to use AT&T's network. The Burg 12 has quad-band GSM on the 850/900/1800/1900MHz bands, so it should work on either AT&T or T-Mobile if you don't want to continue with good2GO.

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About the Author

Alex Colon is the managing editor of PCMag's consumer electronics team. He previously covered mobile technology for PCMag and Gigaom.
Though he does the majority of his reading and writing on various digital displays, Alex still loves to sit down with a good, old-fashioned, paper and ink book in his free time. (Not that there's anything wrong wit... See Full Bio

Burg 12

Burg 12

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